New product line enhances Bigham efforts

Two months ago, the Lubbock-based manufacturer of agriculture tillage and cultivating equipment took a huge step in securing its future here when it acquired the Lilliston product line from industry giant Bush Hog.

Now the company is unloading truckload after truckload of inventory that continues to pour in from Selma, Ala., where Lilliston tillage and cultivating equipment had been built for years.

Bigham Brothers, for its part, now adds a well-known industry name to its own product line that will allow it to expand its market and customer base as well as add about 20 more manufacturing jobs here in Lubbock.

"Bush Hog may well be the most recognized trademark in the industry next to John Deere, and Lilliston is certainly in the top 10," said Von D. "Sandy" Kimball, president of Bigham Brothers, a company he purchased in 1981 from the family whose name still dons hundreds of pieces of equipment that are shipped out of Lubbock across the country each day.

Kimball said Bigham Brothers, which was founded in Roaring Springs by H.V. Bigham in 1933, has been in the farm implement business for more than 30 years since it acquired R&J Co. whose founders  Ross Montgomery and Jack Brogden  developed a line of specialized cultivators.

That's still the case today at Bigham  which has become a niche player in the farm implement business, producing products that other larger producers have shunned as not being cost effective.

"I always say farmers are famous for their inventions because in the winter time they have nothing else to do but tinker in the barn," Kimball joked about some of the products, including those produced at Bigham whose origins can be traced to the farm.

It hasn't always been happy times for this Lubbock manufacturer, which changed its name from Bigham Bros. Manufacturing Inc. to Bigham Brothers Inc. in 1988.

Kimball said it was the Bigham family that helped him acquire the business during a period when interest rates were sky high.

"I gave them all the money I had and then signed a fat note. In the early 1980s, there were a lot farms that failed as a result of earlier (farming) policies. At one point we were down to just seven employees here, including myself," he said.

Today, the Lubbock business employs 50 full-time workers, with plans to hire even more once it gets the Lilliston manufacturing side up and running over the next month.

Kimball said Bigham will invest more than $2 million in the project, with assistance from its bank  PNB Financial  and an incentive package that's already been put together by Market Lubbock Inc., the city-appointed economic development corporation.

Kenny McKay, director of business retention for Market Lubbock, said the Lubbock business will receive $200,000 in incentive funds paid out over three years based on the creation of 20 jobs paying $25,000 or more.

"They've been here forever. They're also part of two target industries that we're concentrating on. Agriculture is a big part of our economy and so is manufacturing," McKay said. "This is a nice fit for Lubbock."

Bigham Brothers is well known for its tillage and cultivating lines, including the Paratill, which was developed in Europe.

In the late 1980s, Bigham Brothers acquired the manufacturing rights to the tillage row crop system after another U.S. company that held those rights went out of business.

"That's been the bread and butter of our company. It's one of the reasons we've been able to keep people working here. We ship (our products) all over the U.S., but primarily in cotton country," Kimball said.

But Bigham Brothers is hardly confined to one product line.

"We ship big pieces (of equipment), little pieces  pieces of pieces. We never discontinue anything. What we've tried to do is find little niches (in the market) that we can penetrate. For a company our size, it's just easier to operate that way," Kimball said.

Kimball said manufacturing is the key to the growth of any city and that Bigham Brothers' latest acquisition contributes to that effort.

"Without manufacturing you're not creating wealth. We take a piece of raw steel here and turn it into something of value. We need to encourage more that in Lubbock," he said.

Chris Van Wagenen can be contacted at 766-8744 or cvanwagenen@lubbockonline.com